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62 artists 32 comics

Portugal.

World
Comics

Portugal

1850

In short

Portuguese comics grew out of the satirical press: the first comic printed in Portugal, Simplício Baptista, appeared in 1850, and in 1875 Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro created Zé Povinho, the everyman who became the national personification.

Stuart Carvalhais's Quim e Manecas (1915 to 1953) and the magazines ABC-zinho and O Mosquito built a home-grown tradition of children's and adventure comics, followed by the Franco-Belgian years of the Portuguese Tintin magazine (1968 to 1982) and the adult magazine Visão after the 1974 revolution. Since 1990 the Amadora festival, small presses and authors such as Filipe Melo and Ricardo Cabral have carried the scene into graphic novels.

Portugal in numbers · 01 • 04

62

32

1850

2010s

Artists

Artists from Portugal in the archive.

Comics from Portugal in the archive.

Aventuras Sentimentaes e Dramáticas do Senhor Simplício Baptista, the earliest comic from Portugal in the archive.

The decade when the most new comics from Portugal began.

banda desenhada

banda desenhada · Comics from Portugal

History

Portugal in 5 chapters

  1. 1850

    to 1914

    Chapter 01

    Satirical beginnings

    The first comic published in Portugal, Aventuras Sentimentaes e Dramáticas do Senhor Simplício Baptista, ran in Revista Popular on 3 August 1850, signed Flora and copied from a French story by Stop. Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro published his first comic album in 1872 and introduced Zé Povinho in A Lanterna Mágica on 12 June 1875, and his son Manuel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro drew for the children's magazine O Gafanhoto in 1903.

  2. 1915

    to 1935

    Chapter 02

    Quim e Manecas and ABC-zinho

    Stuart Carvalhais began Quim e Manecas in O Século Cómico in 1915, and Rocha Vieira launched the daily strip Fitas de Juca e Zeca in O Século in 1920. The children's magazine ABC-zinho (October 1921 to September 1932), driven by Cottinelli Telmo, published Carvalhais, Rocha Vieira, Emmérico Nunes and Carlos Botelho, who also began his weekly page Ecos da Semana in Sempre Fixe in 1928.

  3. 1936

    to 1967

    Chapter 03

    O Mosquito and the adventure magazines

    O Mosquito, launched on 14 January 1936, reached up to 40,000 copies an issue and gave a start to Eduardo Teixeira Coelho, Vítor Péon, Jayme Cortez and José Garcês. Mundo de Aventuras (1949 to 1987) and Cavaleiro Andante (1952 to 1962) followed, while Estado Novo censorship banned Superman, Tarzan and Captain Marvel in 1953.

  4. 1968

    to 1989

    Chapter 04

    Tintin, Visão and the revolution

    The Portuguese Tintin magazine (1968 to 1982) brought Franco-Belgian comics and made the term banda desenhada common. After the Carnation Revolution of 1974, Victor Mesquita's magazine Visão (1975 to 1976) gathered Portuguese authors in work not aimed only at children and launched Eternus 9, Sam's Guarda Ricardo commented on the new democracy, and in 1985 Luís Louro and Tozé Simões started Jim del Monaco.

  5. 1990

    to today

    Chapter 05

    Festivals and graphic novels

    Amadora BD has been held every year since 1990. Later books such as Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia's Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy, also published in the United States by Dark Horse, Ricardo Cabral's Pontas Soltas (2012) and the manga-style magazine Banzai (2010 to 2015) widened the scene, and the state gave its first National Comics Prize in 2026.

Essentials

The comics to know

Essentials

The people to know

Artists

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Comics

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